For corporate cogs and cubicle dwellers - both of which Allen and I have been, and we value those experiences very much - there are Big Days shared among friends and colleagues who live in the same dimension.

These Big Days are akin to internal holidays when they’re good (like Quarterly Bonus Day, for instance), or D-Days when they’re bad (like End-of-Quarter wrap-ups, when everyone’s scurrying around submitting documents and reports and reviews like rabid jackals on crack).

But small biz owners and solo-preneurs often don’t have a posse with whom to share our Big Days. The world turns on its axis and the sun rises and sets just like every other day, and no one but our team or business partner (if you’re lucky to have either) is even aware of the Big Days of our lives.

Getting profiled in the media for the first time. That’s a Big Day. So is depositing your first $1,000 in your new business account, hiring your first VA, having your first five-figure month, speaking at your first industry event, having your first six-figure year, etc. 

It’s these *tiny* milestones that become the drivers - the little “Yippees!” in your head and heart - that remind you why you started on this challenging path in the first place.

Today, Allen and I are having one of these Big Days.

I know this because of the butterflies in my stomach, the cocktail of anxiety and excitement in my spleen, and the “What if’s?” flying around in my cranium.

January 31st, 2007, is the day we’re finally (FINALLY!) releasing our first FOUR information products out into the world.

We’ve been serious about creating info products for ourselves (instead of for our clients) since last February, when we cut the chord of dependency with a few “safety” clients we knew weren’t working for us anymore.

We put our heads down, invested in training, got support, geared up for success, then…

…Had dozens of false starts, procrastinated, let fear get in our way, postponed, took several steps backwards, fought, cried, lamented, watched goals come and go, let other priorities take the front seat of our lives and business, and then wondered aloud for the millionth time why we couldn’t just complete what we set out to do, which was create quality information products for people like us, so they wouldn’t have to suffer the same learning curve we’ve had to.  

Lucky for us, we happened to connect with another business owner (who is now our dear friend Kevin Skarritt), and Kevin had wanted to create info products, too…but he had been too busy running his company to make room for another intense project.

Late last month, we took the plunge together and did the only thing that guarantees forward motion and accountability - we put the offer out to the public and pre-sold the information products that have been stuck in our brains, throughout our notebooks, and inside folders on our computers for way, WAY too long.

And after weeks of scrambling, cursing, praying, planning, working long, LONG hours, giving up favorite TV shows, pastimes, weekends, and sleep, we’re less than four hours away from having them DONE (at long last!) and OUT to those beautiful, smart, supportive, savvy, trusting, wonderful professionals who’ve pre-ordered the “Business Breakout 2007″ package we’ve created.

Even now, Allen’s with Kevin dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. There are last-minute details you can’t know or anticipate until you go through this deliverable process at least once…and even then I’m sure new incidentals always pop up. I’m minutes away from putting my darlin’ angel son to bed, but I just had to get a blog post out to mark this auspicious occasion.

The truth is, I don’t know how Allen and Kevin have been pulling the hours they have. I’m in awe of what we’ve accomplished. I can’t believe how much we’ve done in such a short time. I’m proud of the finished product (at least, the “finished” draft I saw earlier, that Allen and Kev were STILL adding to!), and I’m so so so grateful to finally be crossing over the line, from “Boy, I’d like to create our own info products some day” to “Us? Oh yeah -we’ve got several info products…and they’re really really GOOD!”

I started having this giddy feeling of accomplishment a few nights ago, when we were finishing up the outline and script for our fourth and final product. It was some time after one in the morning. I was punchy and desperate to finish up so we could finally go to bed. Allen was in a no-nonsense/conserve energy mode - the likes of which I’d never seen him in before. 

The scene was so amusing to me I snapped a picture with my camera phone. (I think it’s the requisite Ben ‘n Jerry’s container that sets me over the edge. What a solo-preneurial cliche!) I guess I could sense I’d want to sanctify the Big Day a’comin’.

And now, I’m doing just that - with said picture of my bleary-eyed husband and a big ol’ blog post.

We all have our own pictures of success. For me, I think this one’s going to do just fine.

 For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business (and prepare you for YOUR Big Day, whenever that may be), sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in Entrepreneur Diaries |

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Entrepreneur Diaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.